Buckeye Terry, How do you perceive Craft and Mike Conley in their freshmen years? Conley came on strong at the end of the season with his ability to penetrate. I think Arron is a far better defender.
I'd take either one of them! I agree, I think Craft is a better defender, great hands, extraordinary lateral quickness and he's a little bit stronger than Conley was as a frosh. I think he is a better shooter as well and maybe has a bit better overall court vision. I don't think he is as quick with the ball in his hands, not as good a ball handler and doesn't penetrate and can't finish at the rim quite as well as did Conley. They are both great, great players.
Buckeyes finish off Illin on the road for probably our most impressive road game to date. Sully a monster with 27 points and 16 boards. Another freshman, Arron Craft holds McCamey to five points and hits two critical free throws at games end. Ohio State also very effective at the free throw line, not one of our strong points in prior games. Purde Boilermakers up at 9:00 Wednesday night here in Columbus.
Wow...they continue to impress. I expected this to be the stiffest test of the year - at least to date - and they kept their poise under very adverse circumstances and came out on top. Outstanding....the last several #1's that have come into Champaign to face the Illini have gotten whacked.... I don't know what the exact numbers were but I would estimate that 90% of our points in the last 10 minutes of the game were scored by the three freshmen....Sully, Craft and Thomas. On the road, against Illinois, down 7 or 8 with the crowd in full-throat....these kids are fearless and they are only going to get better. Let's hope they keep it up....a very, very good Purdue team coming up.
Both teams playing well and getting better. Purdue needs a bit more "step up" from the players other than Johnson and Moore...Smith, Hart, Byrd, or Jackson need to help out more. Other problem is that we really have nobody to spell Johnson...we're not that tall anyway, and when he is pulled out for his rest (usually about 15 sec. a game) we got nothing. Good win tonight, though, against Sparty.
Stu, That was a nice win over MSU last night. Nothing guaranteed to anyone in the Big Ten here on out in the schedule. Izzo has to be pulling his hair out with all the losses thus far, but they always seem to be ready in March.
Excellent win by OSU. Things get tough for all teams now that they are in the thick of their schedules. Unlikely anybody goes undefeated the whole season but in basketball that isn't all that important.
Tough one tonite in Columbus....I see we're favored by 8! Way too many....if I were a betting man, I'd like the Boilers and the points. I expect this one to come down to the wire. It will be a great match-up in the middle tonite....another great test for young Sully. I've seen reports that Buford rolled an ankle at Illinois. That may have been the cause for a sub-par defensive from him....those things don't heal overnight esp on the court. We'll need him as close to 100% as possible....this is a very good Boiler team. Can you imagine how good this team would have been with a healthy Hummel?
Are both teams full strength? Should be a great game, no doubt the arena will be rocking. When was the last time you guys lost a conference game at home?
Unfortunately it was the last year, when the Boilers last paid a visit! :shock: Great game, bad result.....I expect another great game but am hopeful for a better result.
I think the Buckeyes have just too many weapons...we are still looking for a reliable third scorer...sometimes Smith comes through, and sometimes Hart comes through...and sometimes nobody comes through. But if the Bucks shoot as badly as Saturday (except for Sully and Thomas)...and the Boilers shoot as well as they did Saturday...we could make it close. Thank God Moore seems to be out of his early January slump.
I'm looking forward to the battle in the post....I think this will be Sully's toughest test to date. That said, I'm not sure how Matta is going to try and defend JaJuan in the post. It's gonna be interesting.....! I agree Stu, the Buckeyes are going to have to have all hands on deck for sure....very disappointed in Buford and Lighty in the Illini game.
Good article on the battle in the post tonite.....JuJuan is looking to run Sully all over the court and Sully will be looking to wear JuJuan out the old fashioned way.....bang on him and see how he holds up. Two great players.....Good stuff. I think the likely scenario is that they cancel each other and one of the supporting cast steps up and has a big game. JuJuan will have to be careful not to get into foul trouble and it's not easy to stay out of Sully's way. However if one of the supporting cast needs to step up, I hope it's one of ours...... http://www.usatoday.com/sports/coll...-24-ohio-state-purdue-sullinger-johnson_N.htm
Foul trouble will be something JJ will need to avoid. Both Sully and JJ seem to play without fouling too much. I wonder if Painter will elect to put a different big man on Sully for periods of time to give JJ a blow and keep him from foul trouble. That prospect should have Sully salivating. Matta can play Lauderdale on JJ for stretches. OSU has better weapons than Purdue, but Purdue has a deeper bench than OSU...except at center. We've got some other big guys but they just haven't blossomed yet.
That's a big benefit to be sure....Dallas may see more court time than he has in a while for that reason alone....but that is a damn big reason. We are though a much better team with Craft on the court - both offensively and defensively in my view, however JJ is such a threat and such a big part of the Boiler attack that it might just make sense in this game.
Well, it's a credit to Matt Painter and the other players that they are adjusting to life without him...still, you are right...can't help but wonder a little bit. This was supposed to be the senior year for the three...JJ elected to stay and may be one of those rare few that actually did benefit from the extra year and improved his draft stock. Smooge (Moore) should have a good shot at the NBA. Hummel has been granted an extra year. Anyway, good luck tonight Don and T. One way to look at it is that I can't lose...unfortunately the other way is that I automatically am going to get a loss.
A much different game than we all expected. Stu was pretty much on target about the Boilermakers in that Purdue had two scorers and Ohio State had six this evening. Buckeyes jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. It probably would have been a different ball game with Hummel in the line up. Ohio State never ceases to surprise me. We won several close games and now have two blow outs in the midst of the conference run.